80 BACTEEIAL POISONS. 



that the ill-effects were due to the flavoring. This belief 

 was strengthened by the fact that a portion of the custard 

 was flavored with lemon, and the lemon cream did not 

 affect any one unpleasantly. Fortunately some of the 

 vanilla extract remained in the bottle from which the fla- 

 voring for the ice-cream had been taken, and this was for- 

 warded to the chemists. Each of the experimenters took 

 at first thirty drops of the vanilla extract, and no ill- effects 

 following this, one of them took two teaspoonfuls more, 

 with no results. This proved the non-poisonous nature of 

 the vanilla more satisfactorily than could have been done 

 by a chemical analysis. 



Later, it was found that that portion of the custard 

 which had been flavored with lemon was frozen immedi- 

 ately ; while that portion which was flavored with vanilla 

 and which proved to be poisonous, was allowed to stand 

 for some hours in a building, which is described as follows 

 by a resident of the village : 



"The cream was frozen in the back end of an old 

 wooden building on Main Street. It is surrounded by 

 shade, has no underpinning, and the sills have settled into 

 the ground. There are no eve-troughs, and all the water 

 falling from the roof runs under the building, the streets 

 on two sides having been raised since the construction of 

 the house. The building had been unoccupied for a num- 

 ber of months, consequently had had no ventilation, and 

 what is worse, the back end (where the cream was frozen) 

 was last used as a meat market. The cream which was 

 affected was that portion last frozen ; consequently it stood 

 in an atmosphere like that of a privy vault for upward of 

 an hour and a half or two hours before being frozen." 



The symptoms observed in these cases are given by Dr. 

 MoFiTT as follows : 



"About two hours after eating the cream every one was 

 taken with severe vomiting, and after from one to six 

 hours later with purging. The vomit was of a soapy char- 

 acter, and the stools watery and frothy. There was some 

 griping of the stomach and abdomen, with severe occipital 

 headache, excruciating backache, and bone pains all over, 



